Page 84 of Set In Stone

“I bet they were,” he said regretfully. “When I got there, both kids were like zombies. Their eyes were all glazed over, as if they were in an alternatereality.”

“They had been living with a dead body for days, Hale. They had to have been traumatized,” I said, annoyed that I had to point out theobvious.

Hale shook his head, as if trying to clear his mind from the vision of two emotionally distraughtchildren.

“Anyway, I found Helena, their mother, in the kitchen. It was evident from the state of the place that there had been a struggle. Chairs were toppled over. Dishes were broken. But…it was the blood. It was everywhere. The first thing I did was call their grandfather. I don’t know why I didn’t call the police first. Perhaps it was because of the dead man in the living room. I’m not sure. Either way, Helena was alive, but barely. Mr. Stonewall said that ambulances took too long to respond to that area of the city, so he instructed me to take her to the hospital myself. He said he would meet methere.”

“Then whathappened?”

“Miss Cole, you have to understand. I didn’t know what Mr. Stonewall’s intentions were when I brought Helena to the hospital. He assumed, as did I, that his daughter shot her husband. Had I known what Mr. Stonewall was planning to do, I may have tried to talk him out of it before everything was set in motion. After all, it would have been easy for Helena to claim self-defense.”

“I’m still not understanding. What did Alex and Justine’s grandfatherdo?”

“When I arrived at the hospital, Mr. Stonewall was already there. He told the hospital staff that his name was Ethan Stone, not Edward Stonewall. I was surprised by that at first, but then he registered Helena as Lena Silvestri. Lena was her nickname and Silvestri was Lucille’s maiden name,” Hale explained. “He also lied and said she was his wife’s niece. Back then, hospitals didn’t track patients by social security number and records were still all on paper. It was easy to give fake names. I knew what he was doing immediately. He was trying to protect her from a murderrap.”

“That’s ridiculous,” I scoffed. “You said it yourself – it would have been easy for her to claim self-defense.”

“I know that, but you didn’t see him that day. He was so distraught. Worried. Furious. I can’t explain it. He asked me a lot of questions about what I saw at the house. He wanted specific details. After I explained what I found there, he told me to go to the house and clean up any evidence of a struggle in the kitchen. He then instructed me to clean up Helena’s blood only and find the gun, but told me not to touch her husband’s body. I didn’t argue with him. That was my mistake. He was obviously grief stricken, not knowing whether or not his daughter would live or die. He wasn’t thinking clearly. I just…” He paused, his voice cracking with emotion. “He was like a father to me. I couldn’t say no to hisrequests.”

I thought back to what Alexander told me about the gun. I probably shouldn’t voice what I knew to Hale and Justine but, at this point, it didn’t really matteranymore.

“You didn’t find the gun, did you?” Iasked.

“No, actually. Ididn’t.”

“That’s because Alexander thought that Justine shot their father. She did, but he never knew that for sure. In order to protect her, he threw the gun in the EastRiver.”

Hale shook his head again, but Justine remained silent after myrevelation.

“The police came. They conducted their investigation, but with Helena missing and no murder weapon to be found, it went unsolved. If what you say is true, and Alexander threw the gun in the river, that’s the piece of the puzzle I could never find,” Hale said, seeming lost in thought. I shook my head, still trying to piece it all togethermyself.

“Alright, back to the story,” I said, hoping to get more clarity. “None of this explains why Helena’s whereabouts were kept from Alexander and Justine all theseyears.”

Justine answered thistime.

“My mother pulled through, but the damage to her brain was severe. I read through her medical records. Blunt force trauma, which I assume was the result of one of my father’s drunken episodes. She wasn’t right when she woke up. It was like she was a toddler and had to learn basic things all over again. Even her motor skills were nearly non-existent. After the first year of re-learning basic functionality, she stopped progressing. Now, she has the mind of a four-year-old, trapped in an adult body. She has no memory of me or Alexander atall.”

A loose curl fell free of my ponytail and I hastily pushed it away. What Hale and Justine were saying was hard to process. However, I had a feeling we had just begun to scratch thesurface.

“Justine, how do you tie into this?” I asked. “How long have you known it was actually you who killed yourfather?”

“I recalled what happened a couple of years ago. I was seeing my therapist, still trying to find ways to cope with issues I developed from childhood. However, I didn’t remember a lot of specifics, and it made it hard to find an area of focus. My therapist suggested hypnosis. I wish he hadn’t. There’s a reason I blocked out the memories…” she trailed off and her gaze took on a hauntedlook.

I recalled Charlie’s interview. In not so many words, he suggested that Justine had been molested. As I stared at her tormented expression, I wondered if it was true and if that’s what she was thinking about. I shuddered. Just the thought of a grown man touching a six-year-old girl was repulsive. Perhaps, in time, I would talk to Justine about it. The project that I wanted to take on at Stone’s Hope to help rape victims might help her cope with herpast.

However, I was too angry in that moment to feel any sort of sympathy towards her. Needing to maintain focus, I stood and began to pace theroom.

“You’re selfish, Justine. After everything he’s done to protect you. He’s been second guessing every decision he’s made over the years ever since he read Charlie’s interview. How could you keep this from him? You knew he was looking for answers to the murder. Why didn’t you tell Alex as soon as youremembered?”

“Why would I? You didn’t know Alex back then,” she said and began to sob. “He was obsessed with finding our mother for years. He had finally seemed to let it go around the time I realized I was the one who killed our father. Why would I dredge up a past that both Alex and I wanted toforget?”

I lifted my arms inexasperation.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe if you did, Alex wouldn’t be dealing with Mac Owens right now. Or Charlie. Or any of it!” I exclaimed. My voice was growing louder by the minute. “He would have had answers! Did you know he planned to go to the DA on Monday? Can you imagine what could have happened if hedid?”

“Nothing would have happened,” Justine stated flatly. “Alex only had pieces of information. Most of his knowledge was circumstantial. The minute Hale told me about the article, I gave Hale the truth about what I did. I may have only been six years old, but I couldn’t hide from it anymore. Once Hale found out it was me that shot my father, there was no need to keep my mother hidden. That’s when he told me she was alive. Together, we decided to talk to the DA. We went last weekMonday.”

I stopped pacing and looked at Hale insurprise.

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